Miscellaneous

Turnoffs

By Anne Skove, Esq.

Taking a cue from Screen Turnoff Week (the event formerly known as TV Turnoff Week, until it became clear that kids don't watch much TV any more), Michigan is thinking about cutting jurors off from all things online.

That includes Twitter, Facebook, and court-o-rama (now on Facebook!!!). They can't even enter Slate's Choose Your Own Supreme Court Justice (luckily we already did!).

Who does that leave? Perhaps court-o-rama's mom, who just the other day asked What's Twitter?

But seriously, it seems to us that outside influences are outside influences, and any juror research (whether it's performed in one's own home, at the scene of the alleged crime, or on Wikipedia) is not OK. Why hassle ourselves with a new Twitter-specific rule? As with most things technological, the old rule usually works just fine. It's all in the application.

See State Court to Consider Ban on Juror Online Access, Dawson Bell, Free Press Lansing (May 4, 2009).

Full post as published by court-o-rama.org on May 04, 2009 (boomark / email).